Comparing Wordsworth and Keats' Romantic Poetry.

Comparing Wordsworth and Keats’ Romantic Poetry.

Both Wordsworth and Keats are romantic Poets, they express ideas on nature and send us the message to respect it. They say we have to admire the beauty of nature in different ways. Wordsworh uses simpler language in his poems wether to express simple or complex ideas, by which we understand he aimed his poems to lower classes. Keats instead, uses much more complex language to describe and express his ideas, so we know he aimed his poems to the educated. During the romnatic period, poets would mainly send out the message to admire nature and see the beauty in it. We should fine joy in nature and nature should be our teacher.

In the poem “composed upon Westminster Bridge” Wordsworth makes us all want to see the beauty he saw that morning looking down on the quiet city: “ the beauty of the morning silent, bare…”. Meanwhile Keats in “on the sea” compares the city to the countryside. Both these poems are Sonnets and in iambic pentameter so a regular rhythm is created throughout both poems. The rhyming scheme of “CUWB” is “ABBA, ABBA” in the fist few lines just like “OTS”. The poems differ in the rhyme scheme at the end “CUWB” is “CDCDCD” while “OTS” ends witha rhyme scheme of “CDEDEC” a more complex scheme reflecting more complex ideas.

Throughout the poem Keats repeats some sounds, like echoes in the sea, he creates this effect by by repeating the letter S. Wordsworth uses alliterantion too to emphasise the idea of the cities Majesty. Take, “sight, so, its” “houses, seem, asleep” which is designed to persuade us and to create a greater impact on the reader.

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In “OTS” Keats uses verbs to create personification throughout the poem “keeps” makes us think the sea is capable of hiding something. Instead on “CUWB” Wordsworth personifies the earth to make it seem like it was a person and how thankful we should be towards it (“earth has not anything to show more fair”). He also uses exaggeration to create a greater impact on the reader here as this is the first line of the poem.

Keats and Wordworth personify in different ways from each other in the two sonnets. While Wordsworth is more positive and sees beauty in everything, Keats is more balanced ; as a result of this he makes the sea come alive with a more evil and angry character. Alternating moments in which the sea is calm and relaxed, and moments in which it seems evil and angry. Keats also makes us think that the moon has power on the sea as its the moon which makes the sea move; personification makes it seeem magical and powerful. Keats also mentions Hecete who is an evil character that witches used to pray to. Here we see his poems were difinitely aimed to a higher educated class, because a poor and uneducated person couldn’t’ve understood references to sea nymphs or Hecete.

In “Daffodils” Wordsworth gives a romantic and sentimental tone all the way though. It is a happy poem and it gives out a positive message; to celebrate nature. Its tone is also personal and informal, which we know because Wordsworth uses often the word “I” as it to mean “me talking to you”. Comparing “daffodils” to “To Autumn” we see that in the second one Keats uses descriptive language and detail, and it’s all positive to emphasise the same message as Wordsworth; to celebrate nature. In “To Autumn” the tone is less personal and the vocabulary much more formal, because aimed to more educated people, to a higher social level. In “To Autumn” Keats gives the poem a slower tone, or pace through long eight sillable long lines, and the poem is composed of three verses of eleven lines each. While Wordsworth’s poem “Daffodils” has a quicker pace and the tone varies between romantic and excited throughout the poem. It has eight syllables in each line and it is made up of four verses, each verse is made up of six lines so it’s obviously simpler. Keats in “To Autumn” is very persuasive towards the reader, he uses rhetorical questions throughout the poem, like in the first line of the second verse “who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?” meaning can’t you see autumn is here? Persuading us to celebrate it in all it’s beauty and to celebrate the festivity of harvest to exhult nature even more.

Meanwhile Wordsworth uses no rhetorical questions and gives no commands. Although he is sending out the same message as Keats, he personifies the flowers and focuses on their power. Keats instead personifies many more diparate things about autumn, like the sun, “friend of the maturing sun”. Autumn bears fruits because of the maturing sun, so he personificates them toghether in the first two lines of the poem.

Wordsworth uses allitenation at the end of his poem “Daffodils” to empasise his feelings: “and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils”. Here we see the two lines rhyme and that the power of this couplet is further emphasised because he often uses the word with in both lines. Keats instead uses alliteration all the way through, but he uses it in a more complex way, using different more articulate sounds. Keats uses a lot of “S” sounds at the beginning of the first wese to keep the rhythm, flowing, but then towards the middle and the end he canges alliteration. The last line is completely different to the whole verse “Simmer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells” here he uses the sound “M” throughout the line. The “S” is repeated for a different effect in “On the sea”.

Wrodsworth has a rhyming scheme of “ABABCC” to make the sound more flowing. Keats instead has a more complex, furher apart rhyming scheme of “ABABCDEDECE”. The main message of the poem “To Autumn” is that autumn is rich, and it is sent out ina more formal way then “Daffodils” where the message id more personal because it is Wordsworth’s feelings and he sends them straight to you by using often the word “I” and giving it an endering informality.

Both poets send out a similar message in all theur poems for they both wrote in the romantic period and they both believed that nature was more powerful than man, thet we all had to respect it and celebrate the beauty it had created on earth.

Perhaps it was his informality and personal approach, and his simpler language, which made Wordsworth mroe popular than Keats.